I’m in the process of listening to a live broadcast of the first hour of On Point, an excellent program produced by WBUR, the National Public Radio affiliate here in Boston (runs 10 am – 12 pm M-F). The first hour of today’s show is devoted to a discussion of the modern media revolution, and the role Apple products are playing is said change.
Host Tom Ashbrook is talking with Lander Kahney, Wired staffer and Apple journalist, along with other guests including Lev Grossman from Time Magazine (this week’s issue has Steve Jobs on the cover).
While I don’t intend for this post to piggyback on my earlier one about the same subject, I find it interesting to listen to those with more experience and more complex and insightful commentary on the same subject. While Apple’s at the center of the stage of the discussion, it’s sharing the space with larger, more revolutionary ideas about how we’re changing the ways we consume and create our own media. Some of the more interesting points:
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• Madison Avenue (the big media companies) are obviously growing concerned about the potential for serious change in revenue streams (Think $1.99 TV shows without any commercials).
• Our society is tailored to the needs of baby boomers and is now only starting to shift to reflect the desires of younger consumers. Are we moving to a culture of shared music and video (iTunes) despite the fact that people are increasingly empowered to create their own “microcultures” of music? Individual consumption will obviously differ but it may be done via a similar channel.
• Actual content ownership – do ownership preferences differ along generational lines? A caller asked if perhaps younger people have less of a compulsion to want to own their content.
• The power to create media is increasingly migrating to the hands of individuals, should they be interested in creating their own content and making their work available on their own terms.
Before I listen to the entire show and give you the full recap here, go check it out! If you can’t get it on your local station, just listen to the archived show – good stuff.